By The Associated Press

Today in History

Today is Wednesday, Jan. 18, the 18th day of 2017. There are 347 days left in the year.

Today’s Highlight in History:

On Jan. 18, 1967, Albert DeSalvo, who claimed to be the “Boston Strangler,” was convicted in Cambridge, Massachusetts, of armed robbery, assault and sex offenses. (Sentenced to life, DeSalvo was killed in prison in 1973.)

On this date:

In 1778, English navigator Captain James Cook reached the present-day Hawaiian Islands, which he named the “Sandwich Islands.”

In 1862, the tenth president of the United States, John Tyler, died in Richmond, Virginia, at age 71, shortly before he could take his seat as an elected member of the Confederate Congress.

In 1892, comedian Oliver Hardy was born in Harlem, Georgia.

In 1911, the first landing of an aircraft on a ship took place as pilot Eugene B. Ely brought his Curtiss biplane in for a safe landing on the deck of the armored cruiser USS Pennsylvania in San Francisco Harbor.

In 1919, the Paris Peace Conference, held to negotiate peace treaties ending the First World War, opened in Versailles (vehr-SY’), France.

In 1936, Nobel Prize-winning author Rudyard Kipling, 70, died in London.

In 1943, during World War II, Jewish insurgents in the Warsaw Ghetto launched their initial armed resistance against Nazi troops, who eventually succeeded in crushing the rebellion. A U.S. ban on the sale of pre-sliced bread — aimed at reducing bakeries’ demand for metal replacement parts — went into effect.

Thought for Today: “Life is a great big canvas, and you should throw all the paint you can on it.” — Danny Kaye, American entertainer